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July 7, 2000, Kruger Park, South Africa 9:00 AM. We have been up for 3.5 hours, now breakfasting at Pretoriuskop Lodge, bacon & eggs; greasy, toast & marmite, something described loosely as coffee, and fruit juice.
Lots of animals have been passed, none of the "big five" yet - elephant, lion, leopard, Cape buffalo, and rhino, but enough generic animals, birds, vegetation and geology for us to be happy enough, even after getting up at 5:30. Jill has taken us in her car - our intermediate hire car arrives Monday, and we are just lolling through the park - totally doing the tourist bit. The drive to Kruger Park, even at 6:00AM with the sun rising, vibrates with Africa (surprise!), many people walking or waiting for taxi's, vendors of "African curio's", already have their stall/ roadside piece of dirt, staked out, and ready for their clientele.
We take a few back roads, a large herd of Cape Buffalo can be seen in the distant valley - no departing from the road or getting out of your car except in specially designated spots, so we cannot do as we did in Kenya, and leap all over the park. Giraffe, birds of all sort, zebra, wildebeest, impala everywhere, a further large selection fast and furious, we no longer stop for the regular stuff - this after only 4 hours. Head off back to Skukuza, the parks central offices, the local store supplies enough for our evening meal, and we're back in time for sunset, pausing only for what Kayla insists was a leopard en-route - sorry folks, digital camera ran out of batteries. |
This is one of
the many lodges scattered throughout the park: it took us 2 hours
to drive the 45K from the main gate.
This park is big:
2,000,000 hectares, 350 Km North to South, average 60Km East -
West. Speed limits are 50KPH on tar, 40KPH on dirt. The landscape
is varied, mainly brush, some trees, kopies (remember "Pride
Rock"?) Sub tropical. As it's "winter", the days
are bright, warm and sunny days (26C), cool/ cold starry nights (10C),
no rain, it's dusty. Gloriously totally free of bugs - not a
mosquito in sight or hearing range: so much for Malaria warnings.
